While everyone loves a good deal, most heavy users out there are worrying about the impending doom of tiered data plans. T-Mobile has just announced its new postpaid and prepaid unlimited plans, advertising unlimited voice, text, and web, but the fine print is just as present as ever. It seems very likely that consumers might run with the good looking prices (without looking at the fine print), only to later find out that their “unlimited” 4G speeds turn very slow soon afterward.

For Postpaid users, the new plans differ depending on voice and data needs. Data plans (for both individual and family plans) start at $10 for 200 MB, and go as high as 10 GB of “high speed” internet. After reaching the data cap, data speed simply slows down for the remainder of the billing month (sometimes even slower than 2G).

Things seem better if you are willing to purchase a phone at full price though. T-Mobile’s new prepaid unlimited plan starts at $50, with a data cap set at 100 MB (not a typo…). The $70 plan does offer 5 GB though, which sounds much more reasonable.

It may seem like I am simply bashing on T-Mobile, but such is not really the case. There is no problem with making cheaper options available. These offers are very misleading though, and it looks like T-Mobile has a loose understanding of the word “unlimited” and are flat out trying to avoid the word “tiered,” and that is where the problem lies. Signing up for a two-year contract (or purchasing a phone at full retail) is no small deed, and carriers should keep things straight forward about what is being offered.

Aside from the sneaky marketing, these plans will be beneficial to many T-Mobile customers. People have been complaining about carriers forcing customers to have large data plans, one of the reasons being that they may be surrounded by WiFi hotspots all day long. This should actually be very wallet-friendly for some.

Also, our friends at TmoNews grabbed this screenshot from Youtube of T-Mobile’s not-yet-aired commercial (which was since taken down), and a perusing of the comments prove that many consumers are pretty angry with T-Mobile over their marketing campaign. Check out the image and the press releases after the break, and let us know your opinions! What do you guys think of these new plans? Are you signing up for one of them?

T-Mobile’s New Unlimited Rate Plans Make Data Even More Affordable for Families on America’s Largest 4G Network

New T-Mobile plans feature unlimited data with no overages
BELLEVUE, Wash. – May 23, 2011 – T-Mobile USA, Inc. today announced a new suite of family and individual plans that expand on the exceptional value and consumer choice the company provides to make data affordable for families on America’s Largest 4G Networkâ„¢.
The plans, available for new and existing customers, offer single-line and multiline options with a range of price points for talk or unlimited talk, unlimited text and unlimited data – with no data overages – offering 200 MB, 2 GB, 5 GB or 10 GB of high-speed data. Each of the plans also includes unlimited nationwide T-Mobile to T-Mobile calling, and unlimited nights and weekends. T-Mobile also continues to offer one of the industry’s most affordable entry-level unlimited data plans, starting at just $10 for 200 MB of high-speed data per billing month.
Beating the competition, T-Mobile’s $139.99 unlimited family plan with unlimited talk, unlimited text and unlimited data with 2 GB of high-speed data offers a savings of more than $350 per person, per year on a two-line annual plan, compared with similar smartphones plans from AT&T, Verizon and Sprint.1
“Our new rate plans powered by America’s Largest 4G Network put us in an excellent position to capitalize on the 80 percent of wireless customers in America who want smartphones,” said Cole Brodman, chief marketing officer, T-Mobile USA. “We’re providing customers with the 4G coverage they need, an exciting portfolio of 4G smartphones, and the value and flexibility to meet the diverse desires of their entire family.”
T-Mobile’s family plans are also more flexible than ever, allowing customers to select different data options and add-a-line features to meet the needs of first-time smartphone consumers, data-hungry young adults and text-centric teens all in one customized package.
The new family and individual plans are available now. To find the T-Mobile plan that best fits their needs, customers can visit http://www.t-mobile.com.

1 Based on comparison against comparable post-paid plans for smartphones from AT&T, Verizon and Sprint; pricing does not include taxes and fees or cost of phone. Plan features and limitations may vary. Data as of May 2011. See T-Mobile.com for additional rate plan and pricing information.

T-Mobile’s HSPA+ 4G network not available everywhere. See coverage details at T-Mobile.com.

BELLEVUE, Wash. – May 23, 2011 – T-Mobile USA, Inc. today announced two new No Annual Contract, unlimited Monthly4G plans starting at $50 per month, bringing more choice and value to customers on America’s Largest 4G Networkâ„¢. The new plans make it easier than ever for customers to step up to a rich data experience across T-Mobile’s entire portfolio of Androidâ„¢-powered, Windows® Phone and BlackBerry® smartphones without an annual contract.
“Consumers today want more value and simplicity in how they purchase wireless,” said Cole Brodman, chief marketing officer, T-Mobile USA. “And that’s exactly what we’re delivering with our new Monthly4G plans – providing customers with the nationwide network, great prices and a choice of any of our latest smartphones.”

With Monthly4G plans, customers can enjoy unlimited Talk, unlimited Text and unlimited Web service on their smartphone from T-Mobile. Monthly4G plans start at $50 per month for unlimited talk, unlimited text and unlimited Web with the first 100 MB of data at up to 4G speeds, or $70 per month for unlimited talk, unlimited text and unlimited Web with the first 5 GB of data at up to 4G speeds*.

In addition to the Monthly4G No Annual Contract plans, which became available May 22,
T-Mobile continues to offer a 1500 Talk and Text plan with 30 MB of data for $30 per month, as well as Pay As You Go plans for as low as 10¢ per minute for voice calls. To find the T-Mobile plan that best fits their needs, customers can visit http://www.t-mobile.com.

Hello, I am Edgar Cervantes. I am an avid Android fan, and keeping myself updated on the topic is part of my daily life. I will always work hard to give the best of me to our community of Android enthusiasts, and I am very honored to be part of this ship. Hopefully we can all enjoy sharing our knowledge and opinions!

It is assumed that T-Mobile USA can be referred as only “T-Mobile” on this website because Androidandme.com is American based with American editors, and American contributors. While their is a global audience, these news articles are suppose to appeal Americans.

i think the plans are great. unlike many, i read the fine print before signing my life away. if i’m saving money every month, then yes its a great deal. Some people use very little internet, so the 100MB is perfect for them. and $70 a mo for 5g and everything else unlim is awesome.

My prepaid has unlimited text & minutes plus data throttled after 100MB for $50.00/month but prior to the 22nd, my data was shut off after 100MB & I’d have to buy a day pass for $1.49 to use the web at all. Props to T-mobile for upping my data automatically. But still, unlimited means with out limits and throttling is a limit.

There is no fine print… it says right in the description for instance unlimited talk, text, and data with 2GB of HIGH SPEED DATA. yes they throttle you down after that. But that is also in the plan description. Stop trying to make it look like they are doing something devious and instead maybe remind people to read the full details of the plans beforehand.

The proper thing to say if they have nothing to hide is: “unlimited talk, text, and data with 2GB of HIGH SPEED DATA, and slower thereafter”. or “unlimited talk, text, and data with 100MB of HIGH SPEED DATA and then slower EDGE speed after.”

We’ve been with TMO since the G1 came out, and signed into an (actual) unlimited contract.
We discovered yesterday, when we got a text that my line had been throttled, that this 5GB BS has been instituted.
If it was in our contract, fine, but it wasn’t. If they were going to call it “tiered” fine, but they don’t.
“Unlimited” kind of implies “without limits” dont’cha think? And trottling after a certain usage is…well…a LIMIT.
To make matters worse, TMo could have at least put us on the 10GB plan, since they have decided to limited our unlimited plan, but it seems they didn’t. And when we called to complain and ask questions about the situation, they informed us that they’re doing it based on some mysterious FCC regulation that they first claimed doesn’t have a number we can refer to to look it up ourselves. They then told us, basically that they had to throttle customer usage because they are getting so many new customers that there are technological limits to what their network can handle.
As it stands, I’m throttled until my billing cycle is up. Which makes the smartphone I bought specifically for all the wonderful online capabilities nearly useless. I can’t check my bank balance, the connection times out. I can’t go on any site with too many pictures, the connection times out, youtube is out, my Pandora app is iffy at best at this point, it takes 40seconds to send an email…
Luckily my billing cycle is up in just a few days, but after that, I will clearly need to begin watching my data useage each cycle.
That could be easy enough, if I could use my “myaccount” app on my phone to give me notifications when I got close to my (I hesitate to use the word…but…) LIMIT, except I can’t use that feature of the app, it’s been disabled due to the fact that I have an UNLIMITED plan.
*sigh*
Clearly TMo’s use of the word “unlimited” is ridiculous at this point, and hopefully not too many people are duped into thinking they they actually are getting an unlimited plan. As for people like my family, who really did have an unlimited plan before, TMo could at least put us on the highest tier, or move us to it instead of making bs excuses and mysterious FCC regs when we call to ask/ complain about these new LIMITS.

For folks who purchased “unlimited” plans and are now getting a quota imposed on them please contact the FCC (http://esupport.fcc.gov/complaints.htm) and file a complaint. Comcast got into trouble a few years ago for throttling their customer speeds after customers reached a non-disclosed quota and the FCC made them acknowledge what they were doing and clarify their usage tracking.

T-Mobile has always throttled back once you hit 5GB as far as I know. This has happened to me as long as I can remember, and most people with unlimited plans knew about this. How is this news? You make this sound like it’s a new issue. At least now they have a plan that throttles at 10GB. I’ve personally been pretty happy with my plan, throttling included.

I get really irritated with companies that require you to decipher their marketing. A good company worth their salt doesn’t need any fine print to alter the terms of their headlines. It’s bad public-relations in the end.

I got flex pay with 500 mins, unlimited messages, and unlimited Internet, last month I use 2.3gbs I want to know what’s the cap on my plan, I called tmobile and they says its unlimited. Btw I paid 76.63 taxes include

You know, I just looked at my router, which displays the internet usage for the month, and I have used over 36Gb’s between 1 laptop, 2 desktops, 1 PS3, 1 WII, 2 smartphones, 2 iPod touchs and 1 internet connected HDTV, all on a 3 Mbps DSL line for 20.00 a month. I wonder what it cost the wireless carrier to provide 10Gb of data per month over airwaves that doesn’t need any maintenance like wire line does.

The radio towers are incredibly expensive to operate. Also, remember, the majority of radio towers are hard wired to receive a data connection and then broadcast. So really they are maintaining both land lines AND radio towers…

This is like the South Park, “CentiPad” episode. Nobody reads contracts. I just renewed at T-Mo with a G2x and the first thing I said before signing was, “are there any restrictions?” Perhaps I learned that line from EVERY advertisement EVER. Everything always says, “some restrictions may apply.” Why wouldn’t you ask about them before signing a 2 year contract worth thousands of dollars on top of your $500 phone?!

Besides, you do get unlimited data… you just don’t get unlimited 4G access. Your plan isn’t called an “unlimited 4G plan.”

Agreed. It is unlimited as they never cut you off. Unlike AT&T you also don’t get overages on the plans and Verizon is set to introduce tiered plans this summer as well, leaving only Sprint unlimited (as in no cap or reduced speeds). You will have to pay their higher prices ($99.99 for unlimited plus the $10.00 “premium data add-on fee” they also charge) though after Verizon goes tiered they might go that route as well. Also remember that every data plan on every carrier currently has language that basically states they reserve the right to terminate, limit throughput speeds, manage, etc., your service to ensure the quality and speed blah blah blah.

So these plans aren’t too bad for many people, especially the family plans. Just like any agreement it is up to the consumer to ask questions and actually read the agreement (it is called a contract for a reason).

Wow, and I thought I was a heavy user. I use the web every single day and I’m barely reaching 1GB on my “unlimited” data plan for Verizon, with a few days left on my billing cycle. I don’t think I’ve ever made it past 2GB. O_o

200 MB and data unlimited means you can download 200 megabytes of data at high speed and thereafter you’ll get the throttled speed. In practical terms, this means that you’ll blow through the 200 MB in half-an-hour of youtube watching (see http://support.t-mobile.com/thread/8115) and thereafter you can kiss anything media intensive good bye.

Assuming T-mobile throttles you to 50 kbps (post 6 and 8 of http://support.t-mobile.com/thread/8115) then the maximum bandwidth you can have in a 30 day month is (50*60*60*24*30)/(8*1000) = 16200 MB or 16.2 GB (the most I ever use in a month on my desktop PC!). My guess is that T-mobile assumes (correctly) that throttling the speed completely discourages people from getting anywhere near that figure though.

BTW: I’m a happy T-mobile prepaid customer on the 30$ a month plan and get only 30 MB of 3G a month, but use about 1GB of wi-fi per month (according to NetSentry free app).

i dont even get 3g where Im at, and my t-mobile EDGE is faster than the ’3g’ i got with at&t…. and Im constantly on Facebook and YouTube, and ive only used 87/100mb, in over 2 weeks….and since Im on edge i won’t even notice a difference when i get ‘throttled’
if Im having no trouble with edge, you people should be fine with getting slowed down to 3g….. smh…

I convert my regular phone into a T-mobile prepay phone. I was informed since I go onto the web alot that its best to get the 70.00 plan. That gets me 5g. I only had this plan a week and it dropped me down to 2g. Now it takes a very.long to get online. Im pissed and I want my money back!!! Good thing no contract….No more T- Mobile for me next month

It is assumed that T-Mobile USA can be referred as only “T-Mobile” on this website because Androidandme.com is American based with American editors, and American contributors. While their is a global audience, these news articles are suppose to appeal Americans.

i think the plans are great. unlike many, i read the fine print before signing my life away. if i’m saving money every month, then yes its a great deal. Some people use very little internet, so the 100MB is perfect for them. and $70 a mo for 5g and everything else unlim is awesome.

My prepaid has unlimited text & minutes plus data throttled after 100MB for $50.00/month but prior to the 22nd, my data was shut off after 100MB & I’d have to buy a day pass for $1.49 to use the web at all. Props to T-mobile for upping my data automatically. But still, unlimited means with out limits and throttling is a limit.

There is no fine print… it says right in the description for instance unlimited talk, text, and data with 2GB of HIGH SPEED DATA. yes they throttle you down after that. But that is also in the plan description. Stop trying to make it look like they are doing something devious and instead maybe remind people to read the full details of the plans beforehand.

The proper thing to say if they have nothing to hide is: “unlimited talk, text, and data with 2GB of HIGH SPEED DATA, and slower thereafter”. or “unlimited talk, text, and data with 100MB of HIGH SPEED DATA and then slower EDGE speed after.”

We’ve been with TMO since the G1 came out, and signed into an (actual) unlimited contract.
We discovered yesterday, when we got a text that my line had been throttled, that this 5GB BS has been instituted.
If it was in our contract, fine, but it wasn’t. If they were going to call it “tiered” fine, but they don’t.
“Unlimited” kind of implies “without limits” dont’cha think? And trottling after a certain usage is…well…a LIMIT.
To make matters worse, TMo could have at least put us on the 10GB plan, since they have decided to limited our unlimited plan, but it seems they didn’t. And when we called to complain and ask questions about the situation, they informed us that they’re doing it based on some mysterious FCC regulation that they first claimed doesn’t have a number we can refer to to look it up ourselves. They then told us, basically that they had to throttle customer usage because they are getting so many new customers that there are technological limits to what their network can handle.
As it stands, I’m throttled until my billing cycle is up. Which makes the smartphone I bought specifically for all the wonderful online capabilities nearly useless. I can’t check my bank balance, the connection times out. I can’t go on any site with too many pictures, the connection times out, youtube is out, my Pandora app is iffy at best at this point, it takes 40seconds to send an email…
Luckily my billing cycle is up in just a few days, but after that, I will clearly need to begin watching my data useage each cycle.
That could be easy enough, if I could use my “myaccount” app on my phone to give me notifications when I got close to my (I hesitate to use the word…but…) LIMIT, except I can’t use that feature of the app, it’s been disabled due to the fact that I have an UNLIMITED plan.
*sigh*
Clearly TMo’s use of the word “unlimited” is ridiculous at this point, and hopefully not too many people are duped into thinking they they actually are getting an unlimited plan. As for people like my family, who really did have an unlimited plan before, TMo could at least put us on the highest tier, or move us to it instead of making bs excuses and mysterious FCC regs when we call to ask/ complain about these new LIMITS.

For folks who purchased “unlimited” plans and are now getting a quota imposed on them please contact the FCC (http://esupport.fcc.gov/complaints.htm) and file a complaint. Comcast got into trouble a few years ago for throttling their customer speeds after customers reached a non-disclosed quota and the FCC made them acknowledge what they were doing and clarify their usage tracking.

T-Mobile has always throttled back once you hit 5GB as far as I know. This has happened to me as long as I can remember, and most people with unlimited plans knew about this. How is this news? You make this sound like it’s a new issue. At least now they have a plan that throttles at 10GB. I’ve personally been pretty happy with my plan, throttling included.

I get really irritated with companies that require you to decipher their marketing. A good company worth their salt doesn’t need any fine print to alter the terms of their headlines. It’s bad public-relations in the end.

I got flex pay with 500 mins, unlimited messages, and unlimited Internet, last month I use 2.3gbs I want to know what’s the cap on my plan, I called tmobile and they says its unlimited. Btw I paid 76.63 taxes include

You know, I just looked at my router, which displays the internet usage for the month, and I have used over 36Gb’s between 1 laptop, 2 desktops, 1 PS3, 1 WII, 2 smartphones, 2 iPod touchs and 1 internet connected HDTV, all on a 3 Mbps DSL line for 20.00 a month. I wonder what it cost the wireless carrier to provide 10Gb of data per month over airwaves that doesn’t need any maintenance like wire line does.

The radio towers are incredibly expensive to operate. Also, remember, the majority of radio towers are hard wired to receive a data connection and then broadcast. So really they are maintaining both land lines AND radio towers…

This is like the South Park, “CentiPad” episode. Nobody reads contracts. I just renewed at T-Mo with a G2x and the first thing I said before signing was, “are there any restrictions?” Perhaps I learned that line from EVERY advertisement EVER. Everything always says, “some restrictions may apply.” Why wouldn’t you ask about them before signing a 2 year contract worth thousands of dollars on top of your $500 phone?!

Besides, you do get unlimited data… you just don’t get unlimited 4G access. Your plan isn’t called an “unlimited 4G plan.”

Agreed. It is unlimited as they never cut you off. Unlike AT&T you also don’t get overages on the plans and Verizon is set to introduce tiered plans this summer as well, leaving only Sprint unlimited (as in no cap or reduced speeds). You will have to pay their higher prices ($99.99 for unlimited plus the $10.00 “premium data add-on fee” they also charge) though after Verizon goes tiered they might go that route as well. Also remember that every data plan on every carrier currently has language that basically states they reserve the right to terminate, limit throughput speeds, manage, etc., your service to ensure the quality and speed blah blah blah.

So these plans aren’t too bad for many people, especially the family plans. Just like any agreement it is up to the consumer to ask questions and actually read the agreement (it is called a contract for a reason).

Wow, and I thought I was a heavy user. I use the web every single day and I’m barely reaching 1GB on my “unlimited” data plan for Verizon, with a few days left on my billing cycle. I don’t think I’ve ever made it past 2GB. O_o

200 MB and data unlimited means you can download 200 megabytes of data at high speed and thereafter you’ll get the throttled speed. In practical terms, this means that you’ll blow through the 200 MB in half-an-hour of youtube watching (see http://support.t-mobile.com/thread/8115) and thereafter you can kiss anything media intensive good bye.

Assuming T-mobile throttles you to 50 kbps (post 6 and 8 of http://support.t-mobile.com/thread/8115) then the maximum bandwidth you can have in a 30 day month is (50*60*60*24*30)/(8*1000) = 16200 MB or 16.2 GB (the most I ever use in a month on my desktop PC!). My guess is that T-mobile assumes (correctly) that throttling the speed completely discourages people from getting anywhere near that figure though.

BTW: I’m a happy T-mobile prepaid customer on the 30$ a month plan and get only 30 MB of 3G a month, but use about 1GB of wi-fi per month (according to NetSentry free app).

i dont even get 3g where Im at, and my t-mobile EDGE is faster than the ’3g’ i got with at&t…. and Im constantly on Facebook and YouTube, and ive only used 87/100mb, in over 2 weeks….and since Im on edge i won’t even notice a difference when i get ‘throttled’
if Im having no trouble with edge, you people should be fine with getting slowed down to 3g….. smh…

I convert my regular phone into a T-mobile prepay phone. I was informed since I go onto the web alot that its best to get the 70.00 plan. That gets me 5g. I only had this plan a week and it dropped me down to 2g. Now it takes a very.long to get online. Im pissed and I want my money back!!! Good thing no contract….No more T- Mobile for me next month